As much as so many of us desire, we cannot remain students forever. And now the official end to my student days has been and gone, it is time the official end to my student lifestyle blog that has followed me throughout my three years at Keele also came to an end. I started this blog inspired by my sister, who runs CupcakeMumma. It became a sort of public diary for me in the run up to university and it really did help me feel so much more prepared. My relationship at the time was on the rocks, friendships were beginning to drift and I was working long hours to save up money so writing about the preparations I was making for university really distracted me from everything and put my nerves at ease. 

Here's a throwback to my first ever blog post here at Life and Times of a Student. I ended my first post on Friday 31st August 2012 with: 'So, Goodbye summer. Hello University - well in 23 days that is. Look forward to hearing from the life and times of a student!'. When I actually got to university I really didn't jump straight back into blogging, instead I jumped straight into partying and the wild side of university - my blog reawakened at the start of October with a blog post reflecting on Freshers' Week and this actually became a theme on my blog over my three at university.

University made me feel more confused than ever at times; sometimes I wasn't sure what I was doing there, other times I felt like it was the place I'd been looking for. Whilst I honestly believe university isn't the place for everyone, I know it was the place for me. No, I didn't always act as sensibly as I should have done, yes I did have too many jeagerbombs and no I don't know how my liver, or anyone of my friends livers' for that matter, are still going and yes I could have worked just that little bit harder. Truly, none of that matters. I got out of university a lot more than I anticipated. I'm a much more confident person, I found some truly amazing friends who I'd happily move in with again and really can't imagine my life without now and I found my boyfriend, who I've now settled very happily in with. As cheesy as it sounds, I found myself at university and I stopped trying so hard to please other people, I stopped trying to fit in to groups I never belonged in and I learnt to simply be myself. It doesn't matter how cheesy it does sound really, because it's the truth for many other people too. 

I quite literally take my hat of to Keele University and everything that applying, attending and graduating from it did for me.

Speaking of taking my hat off: last week was graduation week at Keele and as I said, my blog is graduating because I have! I spent 3 nights in a cute little cottage in Kingsley which was about half an hour away from Keele with my boyfriend and my parents. It was nice to spend some time with them and obviously, quite simply see them! Now I've moved over 300 miles away for good, it's quite a rare occaision.

My boyfriend's ceremony was the first of all the graduations at Keele. He studied Pharmacy and graduated with a 2:1 MPharm degree. Here he is in a sea of hats!

The weather was pouring down on the day of his graduation so we barely got the chance to take any photos and when we did they weren't particularly good. Out came his dad's 5 year old camera (I honestly believe it's about 15 years old!). I put my faith in his dad and hoped he would capture some nice photos and put my phone away for the day, and wow how I regret that! We got a few, none of them particularly flattering of the two of us though!

The week before graduation I had completed my first week of work and Michael had driven me there everyday, hence the bags beneath our eyes! I'm glad we look half decent though...

My graduation was the following day, an early start again with a 10:15 ceremony, but it was so nice to catch up with my friends. I managed to see Faye the day before at her boyfriend's graduation (she's doing a four year course) and on the day of mine, I graduated alongside two of my English Lit pals.

I have to say how disappointed I was that we didn't get a free lunch after our graduation like my boyfriend did. Because his course is pharmacy he's entitled to more funding, and me a mere humanities student is not allowed the privileged of free lunch. I also felt my whole day was a little more rushed than his. Everyone was tired - especially my brother who had come straight off a 10 hour shift to attend my graduation (dedication) and still scrubbed up better than I had done the day before!

Keele really does have a good back drop for graduation photographs! Fortunately there was less rain on my graduation day, though whilst taking all these photos there were some drops of rain. I'm really upset we didn't get more on the day of Michael's graduation, as it really is a once in lifetime opportunity - unless you do another degree or continue onto masters etc! But still...once in a lifetime if you have no ambitious to do however many more years of studying!

Here's a slightly better photo of us together! My only wish is that we looked as well slept and happy on his day too. Michael managed to take so many photos of my day which I'm so grateful for!

I bought a beautiful dress from Lipsy - it was £58 and tighter than dresses I'd usually wear, but graduation called for something special and the colours of it were beautiful! It was more summery than the weather, and my shoes were probably more summery than any weather we've had in England!

The actual ceremony put me to sleep a little. I'd been up at almost 6am for the past 10 days and the ceremony is quite a quiet atmosphere. There were long speeches that were interesting, but I'd heard them all the day before at Michael's graduation! When it came to my row to begin formation for our handshake I felt extremely nervous. Who hasn't imagined falling flat on their face!? I'd picked up some new tights a few days before and they'd made my shoes slip off all morning, I felt like disaster was on the horizon.

As it came to my turn all I could think of besides falling over was how they were going to say my last name. On most occaisions anyone who says my name to call me over for something pronounces it 'Good-ie' but let me tell you all that the 'e' on the end of Goode is silent...thankfully they knew that too.

After my name was announced I extended my hand to meet that of the chancellor of Keele, John Porritt. He said 'Well done, Isobelle' to which I replied politely 'Thank you' then from him another really sincere and reassuring 'Well done' came, to which I then responded in blind panic 'Cheers'.

How elegant of me. The main thing is, I didn't fall over.




Here's a slightly better look at my dress and shoes! The shoes were from Debenhams and I didn't care how flowery I was, I wanted to be summer personified for the day!

I hope everyone else who graduated all over the country last week had an amazing time, and whether your graduation has been or is yet to come I hope it was/is an incredible day for you. And maybe you'll be lucky enough to receive a free lunch unlike me!

I may be saying a big goodbye to student life and my student lifestyle blog but as you can see, my blog isn't going anywhere. The only change that's truly happened here isn't the design, it's the fact that I can no longer blog as a student, but it won't stop me blogging about student life. So past, present and future students, don't forget to stop by the blog of MissIsGoode for all the tips, advice and adventures you found on Life and Times of a Student - and hopefully so much more.